Westberg has gone from goal scorer to stopper

WAUSAU - Chloe Westberg made the full-time transition from a goal scorer to a puck stopper three years ago.

A move like that doesn't come without some growing pains. But it is one that she has quickly adapted to.

Last season was her first as the starting goalie for the Central Wisconsin Storm and she responded with a 17-4-1 record and a 1.88 goals against average as the Storm, who reached the WIAA state semifinals.

The Wausau East junior and former forward has picked up where she left off.

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Westberg entered Tuesday with a 4-0 record and a 0.75 GAA for the Storm

"She is more comfortable," Storm coach Pete Susens said. "She understands the game better. She knows what is asked of her and she has established a set of expectations for her play. The she works very hard in order to achieve that.

"She has really improved on her angles from last year to last year and also in her puck control," Susens said. "She is still a newbie (as a goalie) and still learning the little nuances of things you have to do around the net, especially when pucks are in tight. She's got a lot better with that."

Touch a little on your own confidence. You're a second-year starter (for the Storm) and talk about how you are a different goalie this year from a year ago. Do you feel more relaxed in the net? Yeah. It's nice know when we go to play different teams that I have a better idea (this year) on what player is going to try and do what. But the nervousness is still the same in every game.

How do you deal with those butterflies? Does it go away after awhile? In warm-ups you can definitely tell if you are going to have a OK day, bad day and or good day. But (the butterflies) definitely go away after you face your first few shots and there's that feeling of, ' Yeah, I can do this.' But still every time that puck comes down, you're still a little bit nervous.

What the biggest take away or lesson you learned from last season? I think the biggest thing I learned was to trust myself a little more. Last year I think I was less aggressive than I could have been, so it was just about having more trust in myself and trust in my teammates to make the right play as well.

Talk about the transition from forward to goalie. Was it something that you were always interested in or did it start with a coach's suggestion? I really like playing both positions and I still miss playing forward, but figured I would get more ice time (as a goalie) and that happened to be the case. For a couple years before becoming (goalie) full time, I had played (the position) part time, so (the move) wasn't too bad.

You say you still miss being a forward, but what do you like about being a goalie? I like knowing that a goal (ultimately) is one me. It gives more of an answer on what I need to work on still to improvement.

What did you feel you really needed to work on (this year). Was there one area of your game? Definitely coming out of the net more and being more patient when facing the shots.

The team is off to a strong start. Talk about last weekend with wins over (University School of Milwaukee and Hayward). The team has to have pretty good confidence moving forward? It's a pretty nice feeling given that (Hayward) was the No. 1 ranked team. We just hope (the momentum) carries on.

Tim Johnson: 715-845-0731, or timothy.johnson@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter @timmyjo11

CHLOE WESTBERG

School: Wausau East

Year: Junior

Sport: Hockey

Father, John; mother, Cathy; sister, Kate.

Favorite subject: This year it's chemistry but my favorite class is math.

Favorite team: Chicago Blackhawks 

Favorite goalie: It was (former Boston Bruin) Tim Thomas and now it's (L.A. Kings) Jonathan Quick. 

Favorite hockey memory: Last year when we played (University School of Milwaukee) and I got my first shutout. 

Superstitions: I have to put all my equipment on in the same order before every game and before each game I have to sit where it's quite and think about different shots.